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Is depression a disease

Harry

Harry

I am curious. Don't we all get depressed at one point or another. People feel really bad when their cat or other pets die. They make a mess of it by talking about it all the time, change their avatar to that of the deceased pet. I have seen people all sort of things. I don't think 50 % of them will recover unless they get some help to deal with it. Whether in real life or online.
 
"A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on, and licks it. Or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away." -- Dr. Phillip Boyce.
 
I'd prefer to call it an emotion versus a condition. A more extreme emotion though but I realise that depression can lead to other things and other actual conditions. It's OK to ask for help though if you are depressed, whether it's medical, counselling or whatever else the person seeks.
 
What is the best way to know that we need medical assistance or not. Especially these days a lot of people lost their jobs. I cannot think of any more valid reason that someone is depressed. Let us assume that depression not always something which needs medical attention. Or some types of depression are not medical depression, it is feeling sad in actual - in response to our environment.
 
When these feelings become overwhelming, cause physical symptoms, and last for long periods of time, they can keep you from leading a normal, active life, that’s when it's time to seek medical help.

Depression is treatable, and managing symptoms usually involves three components:

Support: This can range from discussing practical solutions and possible causes to educating family members.

Psychotherapy: Also known as talking therapy, some options include one-to-one counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Drug treatment: A doctor may prescribe antidepressants.
 
Different treatments are going to affect individuals differently, there is no one thing that works for everyone. Some people go through years of work to be able to deal with the depression.
 
So it will make you incapable of finding your bread and butter ? That sounds very horrible to me. It would sad not able to earn enough to meet our expenses.

Ozzy47 said:
there is no one thing that works for everyone
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Understood. Let us hope medicines and therapy improve a lot. Google is talking a lot about detecting many diseases even before they are going to happen.
 
Just to answer the original question and following on from what Martee said, there is the emotion of depression. Everyone will experience this in their life. Clinical depression is when your doctor will diagnose you with the "medical" depression. This is where the interventions mentioned above will come into play.
 
But they will call you lazy, petty or silly. That is what happens most of the time. You lost a job, so what, go find another one. Look it happens to all, that doesn't mean you can sit and cry all the time. You need to take some responsibility and keep running.

I can't imagine how many such advices are going to come if someone is helpless or defenceless. Tagged lazy is one of the common things. They won't allow us to put a fight.
 
Situational depression is reacting to something that has happened, or if something you were looking forward to didn't happen.

Very different from medical depression which isn't feeling sad about something, but rather a lack of feeling.
 
Harry said:
But they will call you lazy, petty or silly. That is what happens most of the time. You lost a job, so what, go find another one. Look it happens to all, that doesn't mean you can sit and cry all the time. You need to take some responsibility and keep running.

I can't imagine how many such advices are going to come if someone is helpless or defenceless. Tagged lazy is one of the common things. They won't allow us to put a fight.
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Sadly a lot of local doctors do not fully understand mental health. They are general practitioners. Same as someone with a larger frame going to the doctor saying their knees hurt, they will say lose some weight then. Not the answer you want from a medical practitioner. I'm not sure where you are based in the world, or how old you are, but a doctor should signpost you to the correct specialists.
 
It is how the medical field generally is. It is controlled by a lot of powerful groups. One that makes money from selling seats to the students, next who make money from various books, instruments and procedure involved in medical education. And once they come out as practitioners, companies which decide what and which medicine should be prescribed. They do not want intelligent and smart doctors, they want people who will agree to their terms and interested in meeting targets.
 
I don't think it really matters what label you put on it as such, it's still a health problem that needs medical treatment. I personally wouldn't say disease, I think illness feels more appropriate but nonetheless it's a medical problem that is valid.
 
Some people tend to thrive on it though and use it as a means of getting attention all the time. Those types annoy me! Real depression can be awful though and if it gets that bad you should always seek professional help.

I think most of us have a few days a month that we get real depressed but thank God it usually goes away as quickly as it came.
 
safeinsanity said:
Some people tend to thrive on it though and use it as a means of getting attention all the time. Those types annoy me! Real depression can be awful though and if it gets that bad you should always seek professional help.

I think most of us have a few days a month that we get real depressed but thank God it usually goes away as quickly as it came.
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Who decides who is attention seeking and who has a legitimate mental illness..?

In my opinion, those who are branded attention seekers are often dealing with underlying mental illness themselves.
 
Lee said:
Who decides who is attention seeking and who has a legitimate mental illness..?

In my opinion, those who are branded attention seekers are often dealing with underlying mental illness themselves.
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Hmmm? ... Maybe, But they are still quite annoying! 🤔
 
All of all experience depression one way or the other. For instance, a bad day makes us depressed, likewise, bad weather also makes us depressed. However, the kind of feelings you have is temporary. Depression as a disease is a permanent feeling of loneliness, sadness, and hopelessness.
 
What @Ozzy47 is the perfect explanation of what depression is all about. If it goes beyond control it is ideal for the victim to seek a health specialist to solve such health puzzle and get a solution to cut the frequent depression off not to inflict more harm to the health of the individual.
 
I believe that there are various levels of depression. It appears as if you described in your main post the symptoms of grief. Greif is definitely a common effect of losing a loved one, friend, or even a pet. However, I wouldn't rank this on the depression scale unless it becomes something you just can't get over. Some people have depression worst than others. Depending on the severity of the depression you have, I believe we could label it as a diesease.
 
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